Source: Nst.com.MYBy S. Param [Letter to the Editor\Cattle rustlers are getting bolder and sophisticated. There has been a marked increase in cattle thefts. Rearers, especially small-time poor farmers, are crying for help from the police and Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) to do something to safeguard their livelihood and prevent their livestock from being stolen. The latest brazen cattle theft was highlighted on the front page of a local Tamil daily on Dec 23, involving several heads of dairy cattle worth hundreds of thousands of ringgit. Several people wearing masks stormed the cattle farm and carted away the animals in a lorry. About two weeks ago, another farmer reported that his cattle were herded away by parang-wielding men at an estate after overpowering farm workers. Looking at the modus operandi of these cattle rustlers, it appears that they are receiving inside help and are well-connected. A well-organised syndicate must be behind the spate of cattle and other livestock thefts. The rustlers know what they are doing and they are slick in disposing the animals. There seems to be a great demand for stolen cattle in the black market. The animals may have been sold to other farmers or killed in an illegal slaughter house. I suspect, in view of the high price of local beef, that many of these stolen animals end up as meat in the market. Live animals can easily be identified and I doubt that these animals are sold to other livestock farmers. To avoid being traced, the syndicates must have a team to slaughter the animals and distribute the meat to "marketing agents" to be sold at markets or to restaurants. More....

Source: Thehindubusinessline.comBy K.P.M. Basheer The foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) that has afflicted domestic cattle in southern States is looking to threaten an unexpected sector — Kerala’s flourishing elephant rental business. The rental business’ high season has just opened and elephant owners are flush with bookings. In the case of certain top-end elephants with high brand value, the booking is for four or five months in advance. But the FMD outbreak in the State over a month ago left thousands of cattle infected. Though the airborne viral infection affects domestic cattle mostly, sheep, pigs, wild and captive animals are also susceptible. Not fatal

Already, three captive elephants in Thrissur district have been diagnosed with the epidemic. “Captive elephants, too, are susceptible to the disease though they are not hoofed,” says Nameer P.O., Associate Professor of Wildlife at the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur. “The disease is usually not fatal, but the secondary infection sometimes leads to death.” FMD in elephants has been reported from Thailand and Myanmar before, he noted. The viral infection — which spreads through contact with infected animals, farm tools, clothes and humans tending to the affected animals — causes painful blisters in the hoofs and mouths of animals. Since elephants are mostly rented out for ‘ezhunnellippu’ (for parading with statues of deities mounted on the elephant back) at temple festivals, they need to work for several hours. “During the ezhunnellippu, the elephant is made to stand at the same spot for two or three hours together even as the ‘chenda melam’ (drum beats) goes on,” Vinod Kumar, a mahout said. “If struck with the FMD, the animal will not be able to tolerate this and can go crazy.” Punnathurkotta, the elephant house owned by Guruvayur temple, closed the centre to visitors as soon as one of its 60 elephants showed symptoms of FMD. It also closed advance booking of elephants for festival work for a few weeks, but reopened a couple of days ago for ‘very important’ festivals. A Guruvayur Devaswom official pointed out that during the busy season, seven or eight elephants are rented out for the ezhunnellippu. “We take extreme care while taking our elephants out, and if one catches the disease, others too might be affected.” Captive elephants

There are around 500 captive elephants in Kerala, most of which are rented out for ‘festival work’ and occasionally for logging. More....

Source: Members.Jacksonville.comBy Bob McNallyDavid was a proud new landowner. The Jacksonville man (whose real name is not used at his request) bought his 640-acre place in rural North Florida and started fixing up the old farm house, working with his wife and kids getting everything a rural family needed and wanted. They repaired fences, pond [filtered word\, woods roads and culverts. Put in a garden. Got fields ready for planting. Built wood duck boxes and stocked two lakes with bass and panfish. Life was good for the new country landlord until one morning he heard a gunshot, then two, three, five and more. They were close, on his property. No one had permission to hunt, so David got in his truck and took off for the back of his square mile of paradise, while his wife nervously watched him drive away. Ten minutes later David spotted a pickup truck alongside a county road that abutted his land. Three men were near it, two of them across a fence on David’s property. A lifelong hunter, David sensed trouble, but he purposefully was unarmed as he drove up beside the men, stunned at what he saw. Five wild hogs were dead on the ground, shot on David’s land from a public roadway. The hogs were wild. But in Florida they are classified not as game animals, but private livestock, so penalties for shooting them are even more severe than illegally shooting wild game. “Fellows, those are my hogs you got there,” David said calmly. “Them’s wild pigs, no season, no limit,” one of the men said fast and nervous. “Seen ’em cross the road, we pulled over and shot ’em ’fore they got to the fence — they jus’ died on your side. We’re fixin’ to load ’em and take ’em home.” “Well, shootin’ from a public road right of way isn’t legal, and I sure didn’t give you permission to shoot ’em on my land,” David continued as he stepped out of his truck. “We better let the game warden sort this out.” More....

Source: Fayobserver.comYesterday, PETA sent a formal request to Gordon Myers, executive director of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC), asking that the agency revoke or refuse to renew the wildlife-captivity licenses and the endangered-species permit belonging to James Bass, operator of Jambbas Ranch Tours, a deplorable menagerie in Cumberland County. In the request, PETA points out that North Carolina law provides that wildlife permits are supposed to be issued only to supply humane treatment to wildlife and that Bass has failed miserably to do so—in fact, he even admits that he has violated state laws aimed at protecting animals. PETA also asks the WRC to seize the endangered alligators and other animals whom the agency has jurisdiction over at the facility and offers its assistance in finding them new homes. Following complaints and a lawsuit by PETA and others, Jambbas currently faces nearly a dozen federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations, including failure to provide adequate veterinary care on six separate occasions—including for two goats, one of whom was found dead by an inspector. "Jambbas Ranch is a hellhole for the animals imprisoned there," says PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. "Violating state cruelty-to-animals laws and other animal-protection laws is more than enough reason for the Wildlife Resources Commission to deny Jambbas the licenses and permits it needs to continue forcing animals to live in pain and squalor." In October, PETA called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take action against Jambbas for several apparent violations of the AWA, including a dead rabbit locked in a cage, mounds of waste underneath wire rabbit cages, filthy water in the goats' enclosure, and raw, open wounds on a bison. Jambbas' past violations of the AWA include repeatedly failing to provide numerous animals with veterinary care, allowing bison to be swarmed by flies until their skin was so irritated that they licked it raw, and forcing potbellied pigs and goats to live in enclosures covered with waste. PETA's complaint is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA's blog.

Source: FreeMalaysiatoday.comBy S. ParamCattle hustlers are getting bolder and sophisticated by the day in the country. There has been a marked increase in the incidents of cattle theft in the country of late. Cattle farmers especially the small time poor farmers are crying for help especially from the police and the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) to do something to safeguard their livelihood and prevent their livestock been stolen. The latest brazen cattle theft incident which was highlighted as one of the front page news in a local Tamil daily today involves a number of heads of dairy cattle worth several hundreds of thousands ringgits been stolen from a small time farmer. Apparently several people wearing face masks stormed the cattle farm and carted away the animals in a lorry. About two weeks ago another farmer reported that his cattle were hearded away by a bunch of parang wielding men in an estate after overpowering the farm workers. Looking at the modus operandi of these cattle hustlers it appears that they are receiving inside help and well connected. A well organised and influential syndicate must be behind the spate of cattle and other livestock thefts in the country. The hustlers know exactly what they are doing and they are pretty slick in disposing of their animals. Obviously there seems to a great demand for these stolen cattle in the black market. The animals may have been sold to another farmer or killed in an illegal slaughter house. I suspect in view of the high price for a kilo of local beef many of these stolen animals are likely to end up as meat in the market. Live animals can be easily identified and I doubt these animals are sold to another livestock farmer. To avoid been traced the syndicates must have a well organised team to slaughter the animals and distribute the meat to their “marketing agents” to be sold in the markets or restaurants. The police and the DVS should view the livestock theft incidents seriously and set up a joint task force to track down the cattle rustling gangs and their marketing agents. In view of the fact that there has been no news of any arrest of these cattle thieves or their “marketing agents” the public tend to perceive the authorities as treating the matter lightly and been unsympathetic. I wish to draw the attention of the relevant authorities that the issue does not only affect the poor farmers economically but it is a threat to public health. Illegal livestock meat may pose a serious health risk to the public and to the livestock industry as a whole. More....

Source: Alternet.orgBy Martha Rosenberg [Admin note: This isn't about poaching, per se, but this site is making some changes in 2014, and this sort of (broader) coverage is going to be included. Hence, this is a sneek peek into what's coming. Stay tuned.\The horrors of factory farming are multifold. Treating animals like heads of lettuce—"forget it's an animal" says one farming magazine—has created institutionalized ruthlessness toward animals, workers and the environment at the same time it harms humans who eat the products. Factory farming even damages the economy thanks to meat-related obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and greedy, short-sighted land-use policies. While many procedures on factory farms are cruel, some practices like breeding animals into mutant-like parodies of their original species and violating mother/offspring bonds are truly crimes against nature. 1. Greed-Driven Mutilations It is possible to practice animal husbandry in a way that an animal only has "one bad day" (the day the animal is slaughtered), but thanks to factory farming, which packs animals together over their own waste, they endure a lot of additional suffering. Chickens are "debeaked" during their second week of life "to prevent cannibalism and feed wastage," says an online guide for chicken growers—though the industry's abusive battery egg cages, not the animals, are responsible for the "cannibalism." Debeaking, partial or total removal of a bird's beak with a hot knife or laser while it is fully conscious, causes “intense pain, shock and bleeding,” says veterinarian Nedim C. Buyukmihci, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine at the University of California. A similar fate awaits pigs who respond to unnatural conditions by biting each others' tails. The factory farm solution? Cut off their tails with a pliers and no painkiller—an institutionalized mutilation called tail docking. Cows also have their tails docked for what factory farmers call "hygiene" and "milk quality" as well as their horn buds burned off with no painkillers. When video footage depicting both procedures at Willet Dairy in New York state aired on ABC's Nightline there were calls for laws against the cavalier cruelty. Nor are debeaking, tail docking and horn bud burning factory farming's only mutilations. Animals also endure dubbing, the removal of combs on birds, detoeing and declawing and mulesing—removal of a sheep's hindquarter skin. If veterinarians practiced the same procedures on pets without painkillers, they would lose their licenses and face criminal charges. 2. Fast Growth Diseases Thirty years ago pigs, chickens and cattle did not look the way they do today. Thanks to growth-producing chemicals and selected breeding, factory-farmed turkeys can barely walk and can't fly at all or reproduce because of their extreme meat-intensive physiology. More....

Source: News.nationalgeographic.comBy Christine Dell'AmoreM. Sanjayan remembers debating grad school biology classmates about the fate of the California condor back in the 1990s, when the bird was on the brink of extinction.Should the condor, which had almost been wiped out by habitat loss, hunting, and eating carcasses that were poisoned by lead bullets, be left to die in the wild? Or should scientists take the remaining 22 condors into captivity and breed them, which would cost millions of dollars? Sanjayan's view was that humans had a moral responsibility to save North America's largest flying bird. That's exactly what happened: Captive-born condors were reintroduced into the western United States in the early 1990s. There are now more than 200 in California, Arizona, and northern Mexico. On a recent trip to the Grand Canyon, Sanjayan—now the lead scientist at the Nature Conservancy—looked up and spied one of the big black birds soaring above. "That's pretty incredible if you think about it," he says. "They're really out there in the wild now." (See "Banning Lead Ammunition Could Give Condors a Chance.") The condor's recovery shows that endangered species can be brought back from the extreme brink. And there are plenty of other examples.Gray wolves, which by the 1970s were wiped out of most of their North American range due to hunting, have bounced back to more than 3,500, thanks largely to reintroduction efforts. Northern elephant seals, hunted down to fewer than a hundred individuals, now number 150,000 along the West Coast. But with dozens of new species going extinct every day—scientists say that more than 20,000 plants and animals are on the brink of disappearing forever—deciding which species to save is a tricky question. This week, National Geographic will spotlight some of the world's most innovative and unusual efforts to save disappearing species, from the mountains of Tanzania to the plains of Missouri, in a series called "Last of the Last." More....

Source: YourHoustonnews.comBy Kelly GoochCatherine the rhesus macaque monkey was not in the best shape when she came to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch. The 18-year-old was more than 40 pounds. Her previous owner allowed her to eat a poor diet and a lot of human food, which led to obesity, said Ben Callison, director of the sanctuary. But through some love and attention, he said she was able to lose weight. Now, Catherine is among the many animals that enjoy the sanctuary’s tranquil surroundings. Animals there include horses, bison, chimpanzees, ostriches, pigs, sheep, monkeys and iguanas. Noelle Almrud, director of animal care at Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, said most of the animals there have had terrible lives, but the sanctuary is able to offer respect and quiet. Callison said the sanctuary’s mission is not to be an entertainment venue but rather a facility for education. “We want to make sure these animals can tell their story,” he told the Tyler Morning Telegraph (http://bit.ly/1bBaivT). The Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch was founded in 1979 and started with burros from the Grand Canyon that were going to be exterminated, Callison said. Horses, primates, exotic animals and farm animals followed. Nim Chimpsky, a famous chimpanzee who knew sign language, even lived there for years, according to the sanctuary website. Today, the sanctuary, which is an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States, has 1,310 acres with more than 1,000 animals. Callison said hundreds of equine are on the property, and once the animals are at the sanctuary, they are there for life. “He wanted to create a place where animals could come and live out their life and never have to worry about anything again,” Callison said of Amory. More....

Source: SiouxCityjournal.comBy Molly MontagJack, a Shetland pony, trotted into Sioux City Animal Adoption & Rescue Center last month under sad circumstances. The pony's owner had died. He needed a new home. The sturdy little critter with the lush forelock and long, flowing tail may have seemed out of place in the dog run, but Jack was only the latest in a never-ending stream of nontraditional pets to arrive at the center on Hawkeye Drive. Officials say that's why animal control officers receive special training on exotic animals: They need to know how to handle whatever walks, hops, slithers or hoofs its way through the doors. Over the years, they've handled mountain lions, lizards, snakes, horses, bears, pot-bellied pigs, a goat and a tiger. "You never know what you're going to get, or if it is of a tame nature or a wild nature," said Cindy Rarrat, whose Hannah Inc. agency provides animal control services for the city. Earlier this year, officers removed a baby American alligator and a snake from a home in Sioux City's Greenville neighborhood. Animal control officers learned of the alligator, which is not legal in Sioux City, when owners posted photos of the 10-inch-long reptile swimming with children in a bathtub. Though it was shorter than a grade-school ruler when animal control officers found it, mature American alligators can reach 10 feet in length. Officers get training in exotic-animal handling from the National Animal Control Association. More experienced officers also mentor their younger peers. Though the training isn't required for the state's animal-control officers, Rarrat believes it's important education. "They need to know how to handle a multitude of animals," she said.Part of proper training is to understand the special health needs of exotic animals. Lizards, snakes and turtles have different nutritional and habitat needs than a puppy or kitten. Knowing that makes it easier to care for animals at the shelter and to spot signs of poor health or neglect, said Animal Control Officer Kenna Anderson. Often, Anderson and other animal control officers must care for malnourished or abandoned exotic pets. For instance, one local resident found a terminally ill ball python in the backyard this year. Green iguanas are commonly discarded as they near maturity. More....

Source: HSUS.typepad.comBy Wayne PacelleDuring President Obama’s tenure, The HSUS has worked to secure stronger policies from federal agencies to help animals – from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the National Marine Fisheries Service to the National Institutes of Health. Every one of those agencies – and there are at least a dozen at the federal level relevant to our work – makes life and death decisions for animals. During the president’s first term, the administration was slow to respond to animal protection concerns. But the pace has picked up in a good way, although the results haven’t been uniformly positive. In last year’s 2012 Animal Protection Record, we noted that the administration made some strong moves to protect animals, but came up short in a number of areas. This year, 2013, has been the administration’s best year by a long shot, and we are giving out our best grade yet: B+. There are some gems in here, with the administration bucking powerful industries and siding with animal protection sensibilities in a few instances. There are still some adverse actions, such as national de-listing of wolves, a free pass for wind energy companies to kill protected eagles, and massive subsidies for the pork industry. But the list below is impressive and it’s something that administration officials should be proud of, and animal advocates should be pleased to see, as a collective set of actions. The 13 most notable agency actions in 2013 that significantly affected animals were:Chimpanzees – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) declared that it will retire the vast majority of the approximately 400 government-owned chimpanzees currently in laboratories to sanctuary. The NIH supported removing a spending barrier imposed by the CHIMP Act in order to sustain funding for the retirement of chimpanzees from laboratories to sanctuary, a fix signed into law by President Obama just before Thanksgiving. In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed listing all chimpanzees as endangered, regardless of whether they are in the wild or in captivity.Puppy Mills – In a long-awaited action that animal welfare advocates have been pushing for a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized a rule that closed a loophole in Animal Welfare Act regulations, now requiring that dealers who sell puppies and other warm-blooded animals as pets sight unseen, including over the Internet, be regulated. More....

Source: Irjci.blogspot.comBy Tim MandellAs wildlife pouplations increase and populated areas expand, causing conflicts, hunting is on its way to making a major comeback, with some areas already legalizing hunting within towns and cities, David Von Drehle writes in a cover story for Time magazine's latest edition.

"Faced with an outbreak of lyme disease and rising deer-related car accidents, the city council of Durham, N.C., authorized bow hunting inside city limits in November. Authorities in San Jose, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley, voted to allow hunting wild pigs within that city in October. Rock Island, Ill., . . . recently approved bow hunting in town, provided that it occurs in green spaces — golf courses, parks, cemeteries — or on private land."

"We have too many wild animals — from swine to swans," Von Drehle writes. "Whether you're a Walmart employee in Florida wondering what to do with the alligator at your door, a New Yorker with a hawk nesting on your high-rise or an Ohio golfer scattering a flock of Canada geese, you now live, work and play in closer proximity to untamed fauna than any other generation of Americans in more than a century."

"Too many deer, wild pigs, raccoons and beavers can be almost as bad for the animals as too few," Von Drehle writes. "This is why communities across the country find themselves forced to grapple with a conundrum. The same environmental sensitivity that brought Bambi back from the brink over the last century now makes it painfully controversial to do what experts say must be done: a bunch of these critters need to be killed." Time is subscription only, but can be accessed by clicking here.

Source: E-pao.net In spite of a number of laws and rules which prohibit poaching and trading wildlife and wildlife products, poachers literally enjoy a free run in Manipur with a variety of wild animals either alive, slaughtered or cut into pieces and sold openly at major market places of the hill districts.

Wild animals are sold abundantly in the markets of Ukhrul district headquarters every day.

Even as wild animals are sold right in front of the Ukhrul DC office, no law enforcing agency speaks a word against it, forget about taking action.

Incidentally, Ukhrul district is home to Nongin, the State bird of Manipur.

It is not only the poachers who are at fault.

A large number of people are also culpable for the wild animals and their products sold illegally in front of all Government authorities are always in great demand.A variety of wild animals including deer, wild pigs, wild fowl and monkeys are sold openly at the wooden stalls opened beside the entrance gate of 6th MR complex and opposite to the Ukhrul mini secretariat.

MR personnel as well as other Government officials came and enquired about the prices of wild animals sold there but they never said that it was illegal to kill or trade wildlife or wildlife products.

Wild fowls put on sale amid common vegetables like mustard, cabbage, peas, yongchak etc were sold within minutes and there was no time for bargaining.

Two women were also seen selling deer and wild pigs after dressing them then and there as if everything is okay.

It appears that most of the wild animals sold in Ukhrul markets were hunted using guns.

According to environmentalist Dr Kh Shamungou who is also a member of the IUCN's Deer Survival Commission expressed strong suspicion that licensed guns issued to hill people by the Government for self defence are being used for hunting wild animals.

It is crucial for the Government to take up necessary steps so that all the hill people are aware of the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, he added.

Source: TimesofIndia.Indiatimes.comBy Paul FernandesUse of cable wire snares to trap wildlife on the Pilerne-Porvorim plateau and other areas is worrying animal lovers as the activity not only goes unnoticed in forest areas but its dimensions are changing for the worse.

A source stated that the wire has several nooses in place to trap wildlife. "The wire is like a necklace of snares with 30 to 40 nooses along its entire length," a source explained.

The wire is strategically placed to ruthlessly trap hares or other wildlife as it emerges from the thick cover into the open spaces. "They die silently after being choked in the noose, maybe after a short struggle," a forest official conceded.

A wildlife activist found 30 snares on a single 15m length of wire concealed in the grass on the Pilerne plateau a few days ago.

"I found snares and other evidence of poaching in the past and it appeared to be on a small scale, but last week I realized that the perspective has changed," the activist said.

A forest department official said that they have received the complaint and will look into the matter. Similar complaints earlier this year had prompted the forest department to scan the area and interrogate some migrants and locals in the nearby habitations. "The activity had stopped after this exercise," a source said.

The activist alleged that the multitude of snares shows that trapping may have increased and become more ruthless. "This indicates increased activities and obviously a high success rate. Most probably we are no longer looking at an individual but at poaching on order for the commercial market," the activist alleged.

Earlier, poachers were doing it to catch feral pigs, which is a cross between wild boars and local pigs, but often dogs would fall in the trap. The activist reported seeing two men on a second visit and found snares where they were hiding in the forest. "They are not likely to stop this activity until they are nabbed," the activist alleged.

Source: TimesofIndia.Indiatimes.comForest officials arrested an alleged poacher at Tungareshwar national park on Saturday afternoon. The accused, Ramesh Sikurghata, was produced before a magistrate court in Vasai on Sunday and has been remanded in custody of the forest officials for a week.

This is the first poaching arrest in the forest since it was notified as a national park in 2005. Despite rampant poaching of boars, deers and other animals, officials had failed to arrest any culprit.

On Saturday, the officials received information that poachers from Devkundi village would camp in the forest for hunting. The officials kept a vigil and around noon, spotted four men trying to camp in the area. They immediately prepared to nab them, but a chase ensued and three escaped. Sikurghata was arrested and officials recovered a gun, bullets, knives and torches from the site.

"The accused were carrying food items to cook while they camped and waited for a catch," said Sushant Salgaonkar, range forest officer, Yeur. Salgaonkar said that Sikurghata has claimed he and his friends were in the forest to hunt for a wild pig. "But there are other animals like deer, boars, and leopards in the forest and the accused could have planned to target them," he said.

"This is the first such case at Tungareshwar since it was notified," said Krishna Tiwari from Citizen Forest Initiative.

Source: News-leader.comBy Steve PokinThe relationship of animals to humans as portrayed in French literature. The ethical aspects of a man’s request that his beloved dog be euthanized when he dies so they can be buried together. Ongoing controversies over puppy mills and circus elephants.It’s all covered in Drury University’s new 18-hour animal studies minor, one of the few programs like it in the nation, according to Professor Patricia McEachern.Since 2007, she has spearheaded efforts to create the minor and, in the process, went from a professor of French to the Dorothy Jo Barker Endowed Professor of Animal Rights.Drury faculty OK’d the minor in November 2012. It was offered for the first time this fall.“I am proud of it and proud of my colleagues,” McEachern said. “I’m very grateful of the administrative support.”The program was made possible by two $1 million donations from Bob Barker, a 1949 Drury grad and an animal rights advocate. Barker hosted CBS’s “The Price is Right” from 1972 to 2007.The endowed chair is named after Barker’s wife, who died in 1981. Barker credits her for his interest in the welfare of animals. Dorothy Jo Barker was in the forefront in protesting the killing of animals for fur.McEachern shared her longtime interest in animal rights with Barker when he came to Drury in 2007 to give the commencement address. He also received an honorary degree. McEachern, like Barker, is a vegan, meaning they don’t eat animal products.Barker subsequently asked McEachern if there was something Drury could do “to improve the lives of animals.”If there was, McEachern recalled, Barker mentioned he had $1 million to contribute.“Being who I am, I said, ‘Yes, we can do that,’ ” McEachern said. “But when I hung up the phone I said, ‘How are we going to do that?’ ” More....

Source: NBCnews.comBy M. Alex JohnsonThey floated down from the sky Sunday — 2,000 mice, wafting on tiny cardboard parachutes over Andersen Air Force Base in the U.S. territory of Guam.But the rodent commandos didn't know they were on a mission: to help eradicate the brown tree snake, an invasive species that has caused millions of dollars in wildlife and commercial losses since it arrived a few decades ago. That's because they were dead. And pumped full of painkillers.The unlikely invasion was the fourth and biggest rodent air assault so far, part of an $8 million U.S. program approved in February to eradicate the snakes and save the exotic native birds that are their snack food."Every time there is a technique that is tested and shows promise, we jump on that bandwagon and promote it and help out and facilitate its implementation," Tino Aguon, acting chief of the U.S. Agriculture Department's wildlife resources office for Guam, told NBC station KUAM of Hagatna.It's not just birds the government is trying to protect. It's also money.Andersen, like other large industrial complexes on the Western Pacific island, is regularly bedeviled by power failures caused when the snakes wriggle their way into electric substations — an average of 80 a year, costing as much as $4 million in annual repair costs and lost productivity, the Interior Department estimated in 2005.The U.S. has tried lots of ways to eliminate the snakes, which it says likely arrived in an inadequately inspected cargo shipment sometime in the 1950s. More....

Source: TheJakartapost.comBy Syamsul Huda M. SuhariThe poaching of babirusa, an animal native to Sulawesi and a member of the pig family that can be found in Gorontalo’s Nantu Wildlife Refuge, is becoming more widespread, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

Lynn Marion Clayton, a conservational biologist from Oxford University in Great Britain and founder of the Adudu Nantu International Foundation (YANI), said babirusa meat could be found at Langowan Market in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, some 500-kilometers north of Gorontalo.

Clayton, who has studied the babirusa in the Nantu Forest for over 20 years, said at least three babirusa each week were smuggled to Langowan traditional market, which is known for its exotic and unusual fare.

“Ahead of Christmas, babirusa poaching increased to as many as seven heads a week,” said Clayton.

Ironically, the meat of the animal, whose population across Sulawesi is estimated at only 5,000, can be bought for less than wild boar meat.

“A kilogram of babirusa meat is Rp 40,000 [US$3.44\ at the highest, while the same weight of wild boar can fetch up to Rp 70,000,” she said.

According to Clayton, the rampant poaching of babirusa ahead of Christmas has become a worrying annual trend.

Nevertheless, Clayton added, poachers often evade capture as planned raids are often leaked.

Nantu Forest is an important ecological site. The conservation forest, which spans 51,000 hectares and is located along the banks of the Boliyohuto River in Gorontalo regency, has been called “an ecological witness” by legendary naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) when he explained the imaginary line that separates the western and central Indonesian islands.

The combination between Asian and Australasian fauna has supported a variety of wildlife species that can only be found in this particular area. More....

Source: Phnompenhpost.comBy Stuart WhiteConservation organisation Wildlife Alliance yesterday released its statistics for seizures of illegal animals for the first nine months of this year – figures that show that the illicit wildlife trade is still a significant problem in Cambodia, despite improvements in the last 12 years.According to the statistics, the Wildlife Rapid Rescue Team – a WA project staffed by military police and Forestry Administration officials – seized over 2,000 live animals and more than 2,300 dead ones through the end of September in actions that resulted in the arrest of 125 wildlife traders.By comparison, between the years of 2001 – when the WRRT was initiated – and 2012, the team seized an average of 4,400 living animals each year.Wildlife Alliance’s CEO, Suwanna Gauntlett, said that while seizures had levelled off in recent years, the underground nature of the market made it hard to measure its size.And while once-frequently trafficked animals are also showing up less in recent seizures, Gauntlett said, it’s likely for the wrong reasons.“In the beginning we [seized a lot of\ the charismatic mammals, like elephants and tigers,” Gauntlett said. “As of six or seven years ago, those charismatic species are gone. And after the tigers and elephants come the bears.”However, she continued, “in the last couple of years, the number [of bear seizures\ has declined because, we think, the population is declining”.One of the most commonly trafficked animals now is the pangolin, a scaly ant-eating mammal. According to Gauntlett, pangolin meat can fetch as much as $300 per kilogram, while a kilo of scales – used in traditional medicine – can fetch up to $3,000.But, as Gauntlett said, “all animals, no exceptions” are at risk for opportunistic poaching, which typically uses snares to indiscriminately trap prey.“They put [the snares\ in the forest, 600 at a time, and we call it the ‘wall of the death’,” she said. “So when somebody says that these farmers are doing this for their own subsistence, and they’re catching a wild pig for their family, that’s basically not the reality.”

Source: Tbtpics.tampabay.comBy Kathryn MoschellaOn a sunny and warm fall morning, all appears peaceful in rural southeastern Hillsborough County. Farmers survey citrus crops while their workers tend to the orchards. Cattle graze in the fields, ranch hands care for property and equipment, and quiet envelopes the small homes and farms that dot the landscape. But lately, poachers and thieves have marred this country serenity, killing animals on private property and stealing equipment. The problem has grown so persistent that the sound of shots echo through night and early morning hours, and its not uncommon to find cut fences as violators encroach onto private properties.A task force made up of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Agricultural Crime Unit and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission continues to monitor the poaching problem. Last month, the task force arrested a 19-year-old Mulberry man. Authorities charged Dalton Gant with felony armed trespassing after arresting him near Bethlehem Road and Albritton Road for poaching a deer on private property. Deputies found a pickup truck known to be used by poachers hidden in the woods. It contained hunting equipment and remnants of recently killed animals. The task force operation centers primarily on ending the illegal hunting of deer, but perpetrators also trespass to hunt pigs and turkey and to net fish, according to Sgt. Ed Raburn with HCSO's Homeland Security Division. Raburn says the hunters will shoot anything they see whenever and wherever they see it as long as it's convenient. "It's a crime of opportunity," Raburn said. "People don't have access to land to hunt on or don't want to travel to a place to hunt, but they live in close proximity to private property or public land where hunting isn't allowed. More....

Source: Newindianexpress.comThe arrest of four poachers hailing from Orissa in the Palar range on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border and one from Bandipur National Park recently has put the Forest Department and wildlife activists on alert. Snare traps, which the poachers planned to lay in the dense jungle to trap the big cats, were seized from them.The threat against wildlife has increased in recent years as Karnataka has a population of about 300 tigers, of which 200 are in Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks alone. There are more than 38 tigers in Biligiri Ranaganathaswamy Wildlife Sanctuary apart from 4,000 elephants, chital, sambhars, chousinghas, gaurs, wild pigs, leopards and dhole in a 1,500 sqkm area.The Male Mahadeshwara forest range across the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border was brought under the Cauvery Wild Life Sanctuary and it has since become a target for poachers as all the four assailants were arrested from Palar.Four other poachers managed to escape, which poses a major challenge to the forest departments in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.According to sources, the four Shobhapura villagers, from Orissa, had entered and surveyed M M Hills forest range after which they had laid a series of snares in Nale Gadde, 30 metres from the banks of the Cauvery near Palar. Forest Department officials are in touch with officials of the wildlife crime control bureau records, to know the history of some of the arrested people and the cases against them in other States.The accused had also dug a small pit, kept food and covered it with foliage to trap animals. Forest officials, acting on a tip, seized salt and turmeric powder from the poachers. These items would be used to preserve the skin of the animals after poaching. More....

Death toll from clashes in the northern Kenyan region of Samburu has risen to six after two more victims of cattle rustling succumbed to injuries on Friday evening. Samburu county police commander Patrick Wambani who confirmed the incident said two police reservists who helped security officers to enhance peace in the troubled region were among those who died in a dawn attack at Waso Rongai on Friday. Wambani said the heavily armed bandits invaded a remote village in Samburu West, Samburu County North of Kenya, where thousands of livestock were also stolen. "Two of the people who were critically injured have been airlifted to Nairobi for specialized treatment. The officers who had been pursuing the bandits have since withdrawn due to darkness, " Wambani told Xinhua by telephone. He said the attack saw five Samburu tribesmen and a Turkana raider killed during a fierce fire exchange that lasted more than eight hours. Local leaders said 2,000 cattle were seized during the fire exchange between the Turkana raiders and Samburu men at a remote village in a strategic pasture grazing zone. They said the exchange between the two forced hundreds of families to flee their homes for fear of their life as raiders closed up after overpowering the local police reservists. More....

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday adopted a rule that allows some pet and livestock owners to kill a wolf that is attacking their animals.

The rule applies only to animal owners in the eastern one-third of the state, where the gray wolf is no longer protected under the federal Endangered Species Act due to successful recovery. The rule would not apply in Chelan County, or in the Methow Valley, where wolves are still protected. The rule makes permanent an emergency rule adopted in April. Before the new rule, livestock owners had to obtain a permit from the state before killing a wolf. Livestock owners can now kill a wolf attacking their livestock without a permit. Any wolves killed must be reported to the state within 24 hours. Livestock owners must allow access to the property where the wolf was killed so the state can investigate and must give the dead wolf to the state. Commissioners also added goats, pigs, donkeys, mules, llamas and alpacas to the list of livestock for which owners can be compensated if killed by a wolf. The state previously compensated for only cattle, sheep and horses. Owners will also now be compensated for the market value of their losses regardless of whether the animals were being raised commercially.

Hunting of wild animals for domestic consumption is no easy task, even for the initiated and only few dare it. But even on the dreadful hills and rocks surrounding Abuja, hunters still engage animals day and night to service the local demands for bush meat. Weekly Trust peeps into the hunters' world around Abuja satellite towns revealing their manifold nightmares and gains. Blasting "dong dong" sounds of dane guns vibrated so loud, puncturing the quietness of the night to the extent that it jolted up a sleeping John Alkali. A first time visitor to Abuja, Alkali from Gombe State said he spent the night with Yusuf, a friend at a place called Dutse Makeranta. Alkali said "I was so afraid and stealthily tapped my friend to wake up thinking armed robbers had assailed the neighborhood and in a gun battle with the police. I was scared stiff," he said. But Alkali said his host explained that hunters and not the police had engaged wild animals and beasts on the sprawling nearby hills and rocks in a game of life or death. "I felt relieved, but could not sleep instantly," he admitted. "Bush meat" made out of animals killed by hunters are special delicacies in many homes and public leisure joints around Abuja and elsewhere. Wild animals frequently eaten are grass-cutters, pythons, wild pigs, alligators, hares, antelopes, buffalos and so forth. "At my age, I like bush meat a lot, especially the smoked and dried type, because doctors say it is less harmful to the body and so good for people of my age", says Pa Aaron Adamu, a 65-year-old man.

While a plate of bush meat pepper soup goes for N400 in some open joints, Weekly Trust findings suggest that hunters who labour day and night to trap the animals go through chilling experiences particularly on the hills and rocks of Abuja's satellite towns. More....

Hillary Clinton recently made news when she unveiled an $80 million, three-year program aimed at mitigating or even ending elephant poaching in Africa. The program is the centerpiece of the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative, and several African nations and leaders as well as wildlife preservation advocates have joined the cause. “Unless the killing stops,” said Clinton, “African forest elephants are expected to be extinct within 10 years. I can’t even grasp what a great disaster this is ecologically, but also for anyone who shares this planet to lose a magnificent creature like the African forest elephant seems like such a rebuke to our own values.” The decline of the elephant population has been alarming in recent years, and it is directly related to the illegal ivory trade — a trade that has grown considerably since 2007. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species estimated that at least 25,000 elephants in Africa were killed in 2011. This number, juxtaposed to the population of elephants on the continent as a whole, is not sustainable. There is something quite magnificent about the African elephant. They are the world’s largest surviving mammal and they demand respect — perhaps even benevolence. But it is important to realize the true motivations behind conservation efforts, such as Clinton’s new initiative. It’s not about the elephant itself — how it feels, how it lives or how it thinks. In fact, it’s not about anything living at all. Instead, it’s about an inanimate, human-created concept — a species. 25,000 African elephants were killed for ivory in 2007 but in the United States alone, 42 million cows were killed for food that same year, and 110 million pigs were killed, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). The experiences of pain and pleasure — and even evidence of strong rational capacities — are alive and well in all three types of animals: elephants, cows and pigs. If compared, evidence suggests pigs have a higher intelligence and capacity to feel pain than elephants. More....

With resources stretched to near breaking point, forest rangers and the tigers they are trying to protect are coming under threat from well-armed poachers.

Yoo-ae, 18, could not decide whether or not to leave the cemetery. The Karen girl's mother and friends were urging her to go, but she replied, ''No, I want to stay a little longer,'' her eyes filling with tears.

Yoo-ae was pregnant and due to give birth at the end of this month.Outside the cemetery hall was the body of her husband, Anthong Ngamying, 22, undergoing cremation following a Buddhist funeral ceremony.Yoo-ae kept staring at his remains and sobbing. ''I don't know what to do with my life now,'' she said softly after regaining her composure.A few weeks earlier, Yoo-ae was in a happy mood when she and her young husband received the good news from a doctor in Umphang that their baby would be delivered on Sept 30.But on the night of Sept 12, forest ranger Anthong died after two bullets from an AK-47 tore through his chest during a clash with a gang of tiger poachers in Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, on the Myanmar border in Tak province.POACHERS' NEW PREYThis was not the first violent clash with tiger poachers. Over the past few years, tiger poaching has become more common in the 18,000 square kilometre Western Forest Complex (Wefcom), and four forest rangers have been killed, and six injured by poachers.The area is home to 11 national parks and six wildlife sanctuaries, including Thailand's first Natural World Heritage site, the 6,400 sq km Thung Yai-Naresuan and Huay Kha Kheng sanctuaries that form the heart of the Wefcom. More....